Glass packaging: all the advantages

There are many advantages of glass packaging: the choice of some materials over others can be effective in promoting eco-sustainable development and greater awareness of the environment. And not only.

But what is meant by product packaging?

In marketing, packaging is the way a product is packaged and presented: it is of fundamental importance because it provides precise indications about the kind of consumption, its use and its identification.

In fact, there are 4 main functions of packaging:

-          Containment of the product

-          Preservation of content

-          Handling of the goods

-          Product presentation

As regards the choice of materials used, in recent years we have been witnessing a pleasant countertrend: glass is slowly replacing plastic as the most used in product packaging.

The popularity of glass is documented by independent research by InSites, conducted on over 10,000 consumers in 13 European countries, commissioned by Friends of Glass and Feve, the European Federation of Glass Containers, which reveals that people are buying more and more glass: 96% of the Italians interviewed admitted that they prefer and consume more products packaged in glass rather than in other materials (three years ago they were 88%).

Glass packaging: why make this choice?

A glass container certainly gives more value to the product and indicates information about the ethical behavior of the company. Glass is, in fact, a 100% recyclable material and adopting a glass packaging rather than a plastic one means promoting an ecological lifestyle and being attentive to the great problems of this century.

Furthermore, glass improves the “shelt-life”, that is the shelf life of a product: it is safe, hygienic and for this reason capable of instilling confidence in the consumer.

Plastic, on the contrary, remains unaffected for a long time after being thrown away, instead of degrading: they serve up to 1000 years to biodegrade!

As it degrades, it does not return to a soil-compatible state. On the contrary, it releases microplastics (microscopic pieces of plastic), which will continue to pollute our planet.

Also, plastic recycling is one of the greater contributions to pollution: there are different types of plastics, which cannot be mixed during recycling, due to their different properties.

Plastic also loses quality during the recycling stages and many plastics they can only be recycled once, making the recycling process very inefficient and problematic.

At this point, it is undoubtedly clear that glass has a significant environmental advantage!

Packs and cosmetics

Among the sectors that have benefited most from this change is certainly the cosmetic one.

In fact, the greatest criticality to be evaluated in cosmetic packaging is the possible release of potentially dangerous substances from the pack into the product, after quite long periods of time or in "stressful" environmental conditions (for example, bottles containing sun products that are exposed to solar radiation for several hours.).

Cosmetics, being in direct contact with the skin, must be chosen with care and attention: the glass packaging protects the product by reducing the risk of contact with polluting elements that would indissolubly contaminate the quality.

Although there are numerous signs of progress, the reality is that today, most companies are still dependent on plastic packaging: it is important to raise public awareness and push the consumer towards buying glass products rather than in plastic or other non-recyclable materials.

These materials will pollute our seas, rivers or other waterways or settle in landfills for a long time causing not only significant environmental damage but also problems for our health.

It is important to act now and move towards a sustainable lifestyle in every sector: the packaging of the future must be completely zero-impact.